Friday Fiscal Wellness Check, April 25, 2025

     

    I've just been adding as the week goes on to this post. I'm back and forth between home, my brother's, helping with pets and trying to manage life. I hope to catch up blog reading and comments today as I'm the all day carer support, and when he sleeps, which is a lot, I can be online.

     How is it already nearing the end of April? My fiscal month ends on the 26th and I'm determined to not spend anything the rest of April, other than sending the check for health and dental insurance. Here's my recap of Friday, April 18-Thursday, April 24.

Avoiding Spending/ Saving on Needs

• See below, as it was not a budget week in the food department but I at least batch cooked when possible to split food for home or with others.
• Entertainment was streaming movies with popcorn and pizza rolls with my kids, playing a couple board games, reading, playing with the pets, and going on walk.
• Brunch is a shared effort so more affordable family get together. My brother provided the ham and the sisters (5 of us) the egg bakes, fruit, potatoes, French toast bake,  and juices. My one sister hosted did all the paper products and pastries and breads. We sent tons of food to my sick brothers too. 
• Hit an incredible price on normally expensive brand salsa at Dollar Tree. We use a lot of it. I'm not kidding when I say I could have bought enough to get to the December 2025 best by date, but didn't want to be greedy so bought five of the medium. Picture from Walmart to show regular price.
• Colored my own hair, but need a good cut. My hair is begining to be unruly. The color should take me through the social events and my trip with sisters. I'm still debating when and if I let myself just go gray.

IDK what person
down graded by
1/2 a star but this
stuff is gold. 

Spent Intentionally

•  The Sketchers slip on shoes I like were 40% off and actually $10 less than I paid last year. I'm carefully looking at my clothes and shoes and only buying needs. The treads are pretty wore on my old pair, not surprisingly since they have been pretty much the only shoes I've worn in a year. 
• I did a small restock of wine for home, taking advantage of a weekend sale.
• The biannual Women's Fundraising group I've recently joined in had its spring drive yesterday. This is part of my planned giving, twice a year 100 women donate $100 dollars to a voted on local non-profit. It's a way to have collective impact in our community. 

Opportunities to add Funds/Windfalls 

• Loaded receipts and played on MS Rewards- tried to be more diligent this week
• I accepted two substitute teaching jobs for April 29 and May 6th, both Tuesdays. I'll be in a middle school resource room both shifts so think they'll be a nice ease into subbing. 

Miscellaneous (added as a few things don't quite fit elsewhere)

• Long time readers might remember the change canister I started before the Paris trip in 2018 called the Baguette and  Croissant fund. We didn't literally use as such and it's been filling since then. I spent a rainy afternoon and sorted and rolled up change. I'm going to start again. I'll call it the Afternoon Tea fund. I don't have many opportunities for change these days, but it will be interesting to see what's there by November. 
• Reason why using a financial planner when you are not smart about things, number one...they understand how to set up various options for the point in the retirement journey you are at. I am much more cash secure than I was thinking I was. I'm seeing a tiny bit of more shares in some of the lost value areas, so should those rebound, I might just rebound too. Now if things keep going south, again and again, and we have depression era losses and panicking, I'll hurt the same as everyone. Of course my motivation to not be reckless in spending remains. I still want to hold off longer tapping into any portion of my retirement account for a while. 

     Then, there are often other things that impacted my check book that came up without much planning or notice, or an all-out splurge.

• Budget be damned when it comes to helping my brothers family. I spent money stocking up on meal prep food and containers, plus a few gift cards for their kids families to help a tiny bit. I can target one of the sub jobs to this added cost.
• I treated my son and we both joined a few family members for lunch before my brother hit the road. He'll be back after his medical and other business have been completed. 
• The laptop I now use was the one my husband bought the summer before he died. The keys are kind of sticky and it's not pleasant to type. I went ahead and bought a $10 keyboard that is much more comfortable for typing.

     Daily Dinner Diary (Friday 4/18 to Thursday, 4/24)

• Fri - Tuna hot dish, peas
• Sat- Black bean Spanish rice soup, chips, salsa and guacamole 
• Sun- After a large brunch, supper was just picky bits and leftovers. 
• Mon-  Goulash, bread machine French bread
• Tues- Large lunch out so not very hungry. I had made too much macaroni for the goulash, so used the overage to make tuna  pasta salad, which was plenty with some of the homemade French Bread. 
• Wed-  Homemade pizza with crust made with Greek yogurt, topped with random funds and mozzarella 
• Thurs- Chickpea curry  Sausage, black beans and rice

     Lunches were any leftovers, sandwiches, soup, fruit, carrots and ranch dressing, hummus, tuna pasta salad.  

I'll be at my brothers all day today and am the overnight on Saturday. My sister-in-law is so tired, but she hardly sleeps, but at least we try and get her to nap when he's comfortable. How was your week?

     .